Mai Shiranui
| Mai Shiranui | |
|---|---|
| ''Fatal Fury series King of Fighters series | |
| File:P mai01.jpg Mai Shiranui in NeoGeo Battle Coliseum | |
| First game | Fatal Fury 2 |
Mai Shiranui (不知火舞, Shiranui Mai) is a character from both the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series of fighting games by SNK (now SNK Playmore). In her mind, Andy Bogard is her fiancé who studied Ninjutsu with her grandfather, Hanzo. The relationship between the two is often unclear and subliminal, usually on Andy's part, who at times seems to suppress his feelings for her in favor to treating her like a little sister.
Mai is very popular with fans, mostly due to her large breasted, highly attractive character design, many see her as a prime example of this kind of depiction of women in video games and anime(Predictably, Mai's breasts appear larger in art than her printed measurements). She typically wears exceptionally low-cut blouses, dresses, and clothing to maximize the exposure of her cleavage and most fight scenes involving Mai include several shots that focus especially on her chest and backside.
Mai is voiced by Akoya Sogi in all of her (Japanese speaking) game apperances while Lisa Ann Beley voices her in the English Language versions. She was voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi for both anime movies.
Story
Fatal Fury
Mai Shiranui is the granddaughter of Hanzo Shiranui, master of Ninjitsu and Kopo-ken. Mai learned from her father the secrets of Ninjitsu, and became an expert in stealth and other sneaky tricks. Although her beauty has brought her many suitors, she rejects all who propose to her, considering them "weak." However, one day she became obsessed with a young boy by the name of Andy Bogard.
Andy had come from Southtown in the United States to train under the orders of Hanzo Shiranui in Kopo-ken. Mai then had to take alternate courses from her grandfather's friend, Jubei Yamada in Ninjitsu. However, far from hating him, Mai fell instantly in love with the American kid, since he was suitably strong and handsome. However, Andy paid little attention to Mai, too absorbed in his training. Mai, on the other hand, had even made plans as to when Andy would marry her.
After they grew up, Andy became a good-looking young man, and Mai a very attractive woman who received marriage proposals from dozens of men. However, Andy decided to travel back to the United States and reunite with his brother Terry Bogard to exact revenge on Geese Howard, the man who killed their father.
Mai was infuriated by this desertion, but had no choice but to stay and keep training. She knew that Andy would come back one day. Not much time later, Andy returned to Japan in order to continue his training. He found out that his fighting in Southtown had been for the wrong reasons; not for the real sense of fighting, but for personal vengeance. In addition, Andy left Southtown with unresolved emotional problems and a resolve to gain honor in fighting. Mai did not care for any of this, she just wanted Andy to be close to her again. So, when Krauser decided to go out in search of worthy fighters, she followed Andy to fight Krauser. After the journey, Mai felt even closer to Andy, and thought it was the time to wrap things up.
The King of Fighters
The new King of Fighters tournament was announced around this period. The fights would take place between teams of three persons each. Mai felt it was a sure bet to make a team with Andy, but he thought otherwise: he would team up with Terry and his friend, Joe Higashi. Mai was left out, but she promised Andy that she would be in the tournament as well. Once she found out that the Southtown bouncer King had received an invitation as well, and had no assembled team, Mai immediately proposed herself as a team member, along with Yuri Sakazaki. King was not expecting this, but accepted them anyway. During the next two tournaments, the Gorgeous Team was seen as a beautiful, but deadly team.
However, by 1996, Yuri was obliged to take her father's place in the Kyokugenryo Team, and King and Mai were left without a third team member. When Mai seemed hopeless, a strange woman attacked her. Mai avoided the attack and prepared to fight. The woman praised Mai's skills and introduced herself as Kasumi Todoh, the new third member of the team. Once more, the Gorgeous Team was back in action; but by next year, King and Mai were in trouble again, as Kasumi was still looking for her father. They resigned themselves to losing the tournament that year. King had to take care of her brother, Jan, anyway. However, Chizuru intervened, and told Mai and King that she would gladly be the third team member, and that she would take care that Jan would go with them.
Mai used the two year recess to go back to Japan and perfect her Ninja skills, and to spend some more time with Andy. Mai insisted in that next time, she would team up with Andy, which he took more as a joke. However, a stroke of luck enabled Mai to finally accomplish her wish: an invitation for another King of Fighters tournament, with a new four team member rule. Mai lost no time in joining along with Andy. However, after the tournament, Terry disappeared under the ruins of Krizalid's base (the tournament's host). Mai's high spirits were dampened by the task of trying to reassure Andy that Terry was not in fact dead.
Even though it hurts to leave her beloved one once again, Mai has decided to abandon the Lonely Wolves team. After finding out that Terry was in fact alive, Mai and Yuri reunited after a long separation. They decide to team up once again, since they miss the fun times way back when the King of Fighters tournament was just beginning to grow. They also decided to accept Kasumi along as well, but this left one gap in their four person team. The final member appeared soon enough, during an audition in Japan, where they saw a peculiar little girl named Hinako Shijou. Mai was so impressed with her skills, that she was taken in as the fourth team member.
Trivia
- The arcade version of King Of Fighters XI is the only King Of Fighters game not to feature Mai, due to in-story reasons of her being angry at Terry Bogard, she was later added to the home port of the console after fan protest, a similar fate to King who was added to the home port of King Of Fighters 2002 because of fan protest at his absesnce from the Arcade version.
- In her win poses, Mai says "Nippon Ichi" roughly translated as "Number one in Japan" and translated to "Japan's Best!" in KOF: Maximum Impact', but the "Nippon Ichi" phrase is commonly mistaken for "They're bouncy~!", or "Me boingy", in reference to the jiggle of her breasts.
- Mai was rated #4 in GameSpy.com's "Top Ten Babes in Games" feature and #5 in Game Informer's "Top Ten Hottest Girls of the 16-Bit era."
- In the American and European SNES version of Fatal Fury 2 and Fatal Fury Special, Mai's thong was replaced with mini shorts and her breast bounce was removed.
- In KOF: Maximum Impact 2, one of Mai's second outfit color schemes is exactly Andy's standard palette - even giving Mai blonde hair.
- In her debut (Fatal Fury 2) Mai can only use her Musasabi no Mai dive attack in her own stage, as she performs it from a specific level object (a pole) in Fatal Fury Special this was altered and she could use the edge of the screen to perform the attack in any stage, in the later Fatal Fury titles, the move is replaced with a simply mid-air dive.
- Mai cameos in Haohmaru's ending sequence in Samurai Showdown, may is seen attacking him.
See also
